A judge later this month will sentence a former Alabama police officer who was found guilty of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed man.

Circuit Judge P.B. McLauchlin set a Jan. 29 sentencing date for former Montgomery police officer Aaron Cody Smith. A jury in November found Smith guilty of manslaughter for the 2016 shooting death of 58-year-old Gregory Gunn.

Smith shot and killed Gunn after he fled from a random stop-and-frisk.

The defense maintained that Smith fired in self-defense because Gunn was grabbing a painter’s pole from a porch, but prosecutors said Gunn was never a threat.
 (Associated Press, copyright 2019)

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